Much depends on context as well. Boastfully announcing, "I'm so wasted!" at a party is something anyone beyond high school age should have outgrown. But there shouldn't be any problem with a middle-aged man matter-of-factly reporting to the boss that "Anderson came back from lunch totally wasted, so we can't let him do the Penske presentation this afternoon."

czetie:The most effective way to get young people to stop using stupid slang like YOLO or twerking or cray-cray is for us old farts to start using it.

So no.

It's the only way they'll learn.

Besides, they have to make up new slang or the language stops growing. If it gets annoying as soon as an old person uses it, then it's not a keeper.

Cool, for example, was stolen from the negro hep cats and has been used by everybody ever since. It is a keeper. Cray-cray is now only acceptable if you are an Adventure Time character. Twerking was just stupid to start with. The blacks can keep that one. YOLO is an annoying acronym but people can continue to say "You only live once" provided they spell it out in full.

Argot is a secret language used by criminals or others. Once the Man catches on, it has to be replaced. And us old people have to keep on eye on you youngsters or else you will do the language serious hurt. I'm not talking about the stuff that annoys Grammar Nazis, that's natural and doesn't matter.

Selfie is not in there because it's not a word that over 35's should stop using, it's a word that everyone should stop using. Selfie sounds like a faddish word used by teenagers because to them it sounds cool

"Eww wah eww wah, whatevs, UNNGGHH!" and "Yeah, we be, like, f*ckin' sh*t, yo!" is not much of a manifesto. We're not using your slang to sound "cool", whatever cool is this week, we're using your slang to make fun of you because it's very easy to do.

Now go play with you blinky toys and try not to get knocked up or shot by 16.

Cloudchaser Sakonige the Red Wolf:Selfie is not in there because it's not a word that over 35's should stop using, it's a word that everyone should stop using. Selfie sounds like a faddish word used by teenagers because to them it sounds cool

It's a perfectly cromulent word. It simply means self portrait. I have a feeling you'd better get used to it, because it's likely to be in the language for a long time.

I remember....hearing a 6th grader call a classmate a "douchebag" about 2006 or so and it warmed my heart because I hadn't heard the word used since the 1960s. When I told another teacher about it during lunch, She almost died laughing. "Women haven't used douchebags since the 1970s. They just don't work. " she explained when she recovered from laughing apoplecticly./end csb//beyond using "douchebag" author is 100% correct. It's just grating and selfdemeaning to use the slang of youth today.

English, when spoken by the English, has a quality of being used to establish ideas and solidify. English, when spoken by Americans, tends to be used as a bludgeon or to push things out of the way. We're running out of things or people to push out of the way 'cause we're all moved in, y'all. Look into actual English. Speak well. Impress your friends. See also: Spelling and Grammar.

I'm old. I'll adopt whatever bits of silly slang that I feel like, so get off my lawn.

Young people don't even use LOL anymore. They use LEL and even KEK to mean the same thing, but show it was written by a not over 25. I know because 4chan /int (international) is frequently informative with the right topic.

I just remember how sad it was when I was a teenager using all sorts of stupid slang, and my dad started trying to use the same slang in a bid to connect with me."yo dawg, do your homework.""The soccer game starts in 45 minutes. We gots ta bizzounce.""Have fun getting jiggy at that school dance this weekend"

ReapTheChaos:Wasted and smashed? Really? Those words have been around since the 60s.

Actually, since the '30s and '40s as "smashed" was widely used by people my dad's age to denote heavily inebriated. Language is prone to convolution and permutation and always has been. Especially English. But it is hilarious to see the whole prefab "generation gap" con work like a charm every 20 years as a new generation feels obliged to take a sledgehammer to it's own language and then glue the bits back together badly. Mostly, because they're pretty sure they accomplished something amazing.

serial_crusher:I just remember how sad it was when I was a teenager using all sorts of stupid slang, and my dad started trying to use the same slang in a bid to connect with me."yo dawg, do your homework.""The soccer game starts in 45 minutes. We gots ta bizzounce.""Have fun getting jiggy at that school dance this weekend"

See several posts above. He wasn't trying to "connect", he was trying to show you how pathetic you sounded.

My problem with YOLO is that it is like hearing "obviously the sun goes around the earth". Whether or not you believe in reincarnation, it happens as a course of nature much like the earth going around the sun whether or not the pope would believe Galileo.

Cloudchaser Sakonige the Red Wolf:Selfie is not in there because it's not a word that over 35's should stop using, it's a word that everyone should stop using. Selfie sounds like a faddish word used by teenagers because to them it sounds cool

I thought "selfie" sounded like metaphor for masturbating./which it turns out it is.